PREPARATIONS FOR SMALL-HOLDING

Preparing

Paul and I both had traditional trainings at university and college of education respectively and at that time had very little interest in alternative lifestyles. Since then we have both had regular jobs in our fields of training, but gradually over a number of years, have become more and more involved in trying to free our-selves from the constraints of a more conventional life.

Our first practical step was to buy a very cheap house which required a great deal of work to be done to it - you name it, we did it! Not so very unusual, but it was a start and certainly showed us how well we could work together, what skills we had and what we needed to learn. Paul did lots of research, writing to manufacturers, reading technical information and so on. It was tremendously hard work at times but now it is finished and we want to expand into something bigger. We want to get a small-holding with some other people and lead a more rural-based life. But neither of us have a farming background and we know that we cannot live by self-sufficiency alone (even if we wanted to). Also, Paul is an engineer and would like to use his skills in some useful way and neither of us want to become involved in farming to the exclusion of all else. So what do we do?

Firstly, I investigated the courses offered at a local agricultural college and decided that the one-year National Certificate in Agriculture looked the most useful. The course covers basic skills in animal and crop husbandry plus teaching the rudiments of using and maintaining farm machinery. Although the course has a strong commercial bias I think it will still be extremely useful to learn the fundamental elements of conventional practice. Personally we favour rather more organic methods but certain basic skills are necessary for any farming. We can adapt and improvise later, by trial and error! The academic requirements for the course are quite low - some '0' levels - but you also need to have done a year's practi-cal work until you have experience. I phoned masses of farmers and couldn't get a place, even working for nothing. Eventually one accepted me on these terms and I worked at this farm, sorting brussel-sprouts and collecting eggs until I found a better position.

A main consideration is finance. College courses are expensive and we felt that we couldn't pay for all the tuition fees etc. ourselves. Theoretically I am a teacher looking for work in other fields (if you'll excuse the pun!) because of the cutbacks in education. Therefore I approached the government retraining scheme - Training Opportunities Scheme (TOPS) - and after a series of interviews 'they' agreed to sponsor me for a place at agri-cultural college. My place is called an 'infill' because I am taking part in an already existing course, as opposed to one run exclusively by TOPS. At one time this scheme was unwilling to cater for those who intended to be self-employed, but as unemployment continues to increase they have widened their horizons.

While I am at college, Paul will also be studying. He is going to another local college, again with TOPS sponsorship, to study for a Diploma in Management Studies. He has already had several years experience in systems engineering and some administrative/organisa-tional experience in various alternative movements. When we move to a small-holding and have become established, we hope that Paul will be able to start up a small business with others, maybe on a co--operative basis. At the moment he has lots of ideas and enthusiasm but feels that he needs to know more about the techniques of runn-ing a business. There are courses which cater specifically for small businesses, but for various reasons the DMS seemed more suitable. TOPS courses are available to anyone who has been out of full-time education for three years. Information on them is avail-able from your local Department of Employment. So much for theory, what about the practical side of things? We will need lots of money to buy a small-holding. This is one reason why we are joining forces with another couple. We think that we will get more value for money by pooling resources and then sharing land and buildings: We have a reasonable sum of money because both of us have put a lot of hard work into improving our houses and thus amass-ing capital. Maybe some people disapprove but at our age (mid '20s) this and hard saving is the only way we can afford to start up a place of our own. Of course, we realise that even having been to college we will both make plenty of mistakes and still, no doubt, find ourselves short of cash on occasions. However, we hope that at least we have given ourselves a reasonable basis for our 'simple life'.